Woe from stones: commemoration, identity politics and Estonia's 'War of Monuments'

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Empty spaces and the value of symbols: Estonia's 'war of monuments' from another angle

Taking as its point of departure the recent heightened discussion surrounding publicly sited monuments in Estonia, this article investigates the issue from the perspective of the country's eastern border city of Narva, focusing especially upon the restoration in 2000 of a 'Swedish Lion' monument to mark the 300th anniversary of Sweden's victory over Russia at the first Battle of Narva. This commemoration is characterised here as a successful local negotiation of a potentially divisive past, as are subsequent commemorations of the Russian conquest of Narva in 1704. A recent proposal to erect a statue of Peter the Great in the city, however, briefly threatened to open a new front in Estonia's ongoing 'war of monuments'. Through a discussion of these episodes, the article seeks to link the Narva case to broader conceptual issues of identity politics, nationalism and post-communist transition

The link between ethnic segregation and socio-economic status : An activity space approach

The extent to which ethnic segregation results from differences in socio-economic factors remains a seminal topic of debate. The growing literature demonstrating the multifaceted phenomenon of segregation urges more focus on individuals' spatial and social interactions. We applied an activity space approach and considered ethnic differences in individuals' activity spaces as an indicator of spatial segregation. We used mobile phone and survey datasets in Estonia. We show that place-based segregation indices derived from both datasets indicate similar levels of ethnic segregation. From an activity space perspective, the results show that the main socio-economic factor affecting the extensity of activity spaces is self-estimated social status rather than education and income. Results show that ethnic inequality in spatial behaviour is not straightforward, but rather that it is linked to how individuals position themselves in society. We argue that socio-economic factors need to be controlled to examine ethnic segregation from activity space perspective.Peer reviewe

Enacting social transformation through occupation: A narrative literature review

Background: In occupational therapy and occupational science there is a drive to confront social and health injustices through occupation-based practices with social transformation as a goal. However, scholars acknowledge a lack of theory to support this developing area of practice. Aim: To explore how occupations have been used to enact social transformation for disadvantaged communities and to elucidate socially transformative outcomes. Methods: A narrative literature review was carried out, focussing specifically on arts-based occupations, using seven databases. Thirty-eight items were included. Results: Three overarching themes emerged: experiences related to giving voice; levels of change and arts-based occupations influence social change. Conclusions: Art forms as a means of expression can support people to make demands for change. This was true whether the art form was adopted at grass roots level, or via formalized projects run by researchers or Non-Government Organizations. Whilst personal change and small scale social change outcomes were achievable, larger scale structural change was not evident. Unintended outcomes in the form of risks to participants were reported. How and why change came about was not clearly articulated; leaving a need for further exploration of the mechanisms and contexts supporting change in the growing field of social transformation through occupation

The challenges of renewed independence: The Baltic states since 1991

This article offers a comparative assessment of how successfully Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania have coped with the challenges of renewed independence since 1991, focusing on various aspects of political, economic, and social development. In the post-communist context the Baltic states have clearly outpaced other former Soviet republics and also performed reasonably well in comparison to the countries of Eastern Europe. The convergence of the Baltic experience, which began already in the early 20th century, has continued in the recent past as well, as the three states have adopted a number of similar approaches in domestic politics, the search for security, and economic policy. They also face a number of similar unsolved problems, including considerable political alienation, tensions in relations with Russia, socioeconomic disparity, and demographic challenges. The most important difference in the issues confronting the Baltic states today continues to be the large non-Baltic, mainly Russian presence in Estonia and Latvia, a result of Soviet-era policies. How to effect the meaningful integration of a multiethnic society remains a continuing challenge in these two countries. In contrast, population shifts under Soviet rule never became massive in Lithuania, and ethnic relations are a minor issue there today